A person's bladder functions to collect and hold urine, and from time-to-time, the bladder functions to evacuate the urine. Some people have a condition that is sometimes referred to as urinary retention. This simply means that the bladder is unable to evacuate urine.
There are a number of treatments for urinary retention. One approach or solution to this problem involves intermittent self-catheterization where, in the case of a woman, the woman catheterizes herself periodically. This is generally recognized as a safe and effective way for women to deal with urinary retention.
There is one problem with self-catheterization involving a female. Because of the anatomical position of the inlet opening of the female urethra, it is difficult for a woman to self-catheterize herself.
There has been and continues to be attempts at designing aids for assisting women with self-catheterization. For the most part, the approaches of the prior art have fallen short for one reason or another. For example, it is known to provide a vaginal insert that has an associated catheterization guide. To use this device, the woman inserts the device into her vagina with the idea that the associated guide will align with her urethra. In many cases, the guide will not properly align with the woman's urethra and, hence, the device is of little or no use and only leads to frustration.
Therefore, there has been and continues to be a need for a simple and easy-to-use catheterization aid for females that will enable a female to easily and quickly execute self-catheterization.